Thank you for you help . I have the whole car so I can take whatever is needed to make it work. Thank you againits about as hard as any other engine swap. as i recall the essex V6 uses the same motor mounts as the early 289/302, at least where they bolt to the block. the bell housing bolt pattern is the same as the 289/302 so that engine will bolt up to the transmission, but you will have to get the right flywheel/flexlate. my advice for that is to get the transmission that comes with the V6, usually a version of the AOD, which means you need AOD conversion mount/crossmember. if the AOD you get is the electronic version you will need a trans controller. and if you plan to run the factory EFI, you will need all the attendant wiring and fuel system components to make it work. plus all the other little details necessary to complete a swap on any nature.
See my post update on full 5.0 Explorer swap. The key to an ODB2 swap into an early car (after being sure it physically fits) is programming the PCM. Look for "the EFI guy" in Colorado. Garry can program the EEC IV and V PCMs to remove PATS, fuel tank codes, etc. This is the key to a no SES light on conversion. With a good wiring diagram manual and some ciphering it could be done-especially with a complete donor car. Sounds like the mechanical side is not that difficult.
personally i like the essex V6 over the later 3.7 based engines. but to each their own.
They are certainly more compact. I once saw a Chrsyler Conquest in a junkyard with a 3.8L Supercharged swap.....with a turbocharger as well...a twincharged oddball swap...was probably the strangest junkyard find ever.
i dont even care about the size of the engines, they both fit the vintage engine compartments well enough to use them. my issue is with the way the waterpump is driven on the ecoboost engines. best hope you dont get a coolant leak because it will destroy the ecoboost engines in short order, since likely you would never know the leak was there until it was too late. and wile you are there, assuming you catch the problem early enough, you may was well replace teh timing chain and its attendant parts, gears tensioners, etc.
The 3.8L Essex has half the horsepower and the same fuel economy combined with sounding like a tractor? No thanks. The 3.7 is far superior, it sounds like a European or Asian V6, makes insane power for it's displacement, and still gets fantastic fuel economy.personally i like the essex V6 over the later 3.7 based engines. but to each their own.
There are two versions of the 3.5/3.7 Duratec/Cyclone family. In front-wheel-applications, you have the dreaded timing-chain-driven water pump that dumps coolant into the oil. The rear-wheel-drive versions from the F150 and Mustang do not, they have "traditional" water pumps mounted to the outside of the cover. I've done the timing covers on both versions (and water pumps, and chains, and cam phasers). Hell, I've even done a 3.5 water pump, in a Taurus, in my driveway.i dont even care about the size of the engines, they both fit the vintage engine compartments well enough to use them. my issue is with the way the waterpump is driven on the ecoboost engines. best hope you dont get a coolant leak because it will destroy the ecoboost engines in short order, since likely you would never know the leak was there until it was too late. and wile you are there, assuming you catch the problem early enough, you may was well replace teh timing chain and its attendant parts, gears tensioners, etc.
The replacements are crap too in the FWD applications. The change to running a double-gear on the water pump pulley didn't help much.Yeah, not the best design.....but just think of it as part of a 70k maintenance package and you are golden, besides, the issue with the water pump was addressed in a TSB and the replacements last far longer.
The 3.8L Essex has half the horsepower and the same fuel economy combined with sounding like a tractor? No thanks. The 3.7 is far superior, it sounds like a European or Asian V6, makes insane power for it's displacement, and still gets fantastic fuel economy.
There are two versions of the 3.5/3.7 Duratec/Cyclone family. In front-wheel-applications, you have the dreaded timing-chain-driven water pump that dumps coolant into the oil. The rear-wheel-drive versions from the F150 and Mustang do not, they have "traditional" water pumps mounted to the outside of the cover. I've done the timing covers on both versions (and water pumps, and chains, and cam phasers). Hell, I've even done a 3.5 water pump, in a Taurus, in my driveway.
The replacements are crap too in the FWD applications. The change to running a double-gear on the water pump pulley didn't help much.
The RWD engine's pump bolts to the timing cover. There's a coolant pipe that runs to it that the FWD versions don't have.Really? I was under the impression the RWD engines had both an internal and external water pump. I haven't actually taken the front cover off of mine to find out though(only 15k miles on the engine), just read that somewhere. It would be a relief to just have a 2 hour casual replacement rather than a timing-chain involved one.